Chapter 9 presentation for Philosophy 100

1. Chapter Nine – Social Philosophy
Am I My Brother’s or My Sister’s Keeper?
Roots of Wisdom
6th edition
Helen Buss Mitchell
Chapter ReviewChapter Review

2. The Issue Defined
• Questions of justice - the primary philosophical issue
of social philosophy - are rooted in whether we see
our own welfare and the welfare of others as
connected or separate.
• How should people be treated? On the basis of their
merit? Should the beautiful/handsome, talented, and
high born be treated according to one standard and the
ordinary by another?
• Should those who may be expected to advance the
social good be given special advantages and rewards?

3. Classical Theories of Justice
• Plato
• in a polis, each fulfills their role
• three classes exist, each corresponding to one of the
three elements in human nature (reason, spirit, appetite)
• Aristotle
• like Plato, advocated benevolent dictatorship
• the state comes before the individual
• merit assigns different positions to individuals

4. Utilitarianism
• The greatest pleasure for the greatest
number at the least expense is
calculated to determine social policy
• A hidden assumption is that some
members of society might be required
to sacrifice for the benefit of the
“greatest number”

5. Justice as Fairness
• What is upheld is what is fair to individuals, not what is
best for the society as a whole
• Marx decried what he saw as alienation in industrial
laborers
• Rawls advocated justice in terms of the equal liberty
principle and the difference principle, using the
“original position” to envision a truly just society
• Nozick advocated the entitlement theory, protecting
justice in holding and justice in transfer; he supported
anarchism, as well as multiple utopias

6. African American Social
Philosophy
• emphasis has varied between advocates of
assimilation (Douglass and King) and
separatism (Delaney and Malcolm X)
• Du Bois portrayed blacks as suffering from
double consciousness; Malcolm X put forward
psychic conversion as the solution
• Cornel West has expanded upon earlier visions
to offer a broader ideal of justice

7. Mexican American Social
Philosophy
• Cesar Estrada Chavez and Rodolfo “Corky”
Gonzales reflect the tension between assimilation
and separatism
• In creating (with Dolores Huerta) the United Farm
Workers, Chavez insisted on non-violence,
blending political protest with deep religious faith
• In his leadership of La Raza Unida, Gonzales
advocated chicano pride and the reclaiming of
Aztlan, land ceded under pressure to the United
States at the end of the Mexican-American War

8. Feminist Social Philosophy
• Beauvoir described women’s position as one of
alterity or otherness
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman advocated economic
self-sufficiency for women, along with large-
scale changes in domestic labor
• Audre Lorde argued that as a result of multiple
lines of oppression, all persons could be seen to
harbor roles of both oppressor and oppressed

9. War and Its Justifications
• Christian Just War theory and Islamic Jihad as
parallel examples of criteria formulated for the
purpose of determining legitimate justifications
for going to war, as well as legitimate conduct,
once involved in war
• The role of martyr is also parallel in both
traditions

10. Communitarianism
• A move away from models upholding the
individual to ones that emphasize sociality and
community – long practiced in traditional cultures
• Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J. emphasizes that the
common good is above the particular good
• Charles Taylor distinguishes between fundamental
rights and lesser privileges
• Cosmopolitanism proclaims the family and nation
as artificial and advocates the ideal of world
citizenship

11. Key Terms
• Merit
• Utilitarianism
• Hedonism
• Alienation
• Equal liberty principle
• Difference principle
• Original position
• Entitlement theory
• Consensus
• Assimilationists
• Separatist
• Black power
• Psychic conversion
• Double consciousness
• Patriarchal
• Feminists
• Alterity
• Jihad
• Just War Theory
• Communitarianism
• Cosmopolitanism